PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The IRA welcomed the New Year by murdering two policemen as the church bells fell silent; Martin McGuinness was released uncharged after being detained for six days; Owen Carron, once a Sinn Fein MP for the seat held by Bobby Sands, and now in jail charged with possession of a rifle, was again declared a parliamentary candidate. It appeared that Mr Heseltine's attempt to cross Mr Brittan's plans for the Westland helicopter company had failed, and that his political platform might be- come his scaffold. The annual release of Cabinet papers under the 30-year rule disclosed the first appearance of the tradi- tional search for an immigration law which would exclude only blacks from settling in this country, without either doing so expli- citly or offending them. These discussions ended inconclusively. Two BBC reporters were suspended without pay for three months after an excess of investigative zeal when getting a woman to confess that she had borne false witness. The New Year Honours List exluded Bob Geldof, which many people thought reprehensible, and knighted Gordon Reece, an expert on the exterior design of politicians, who put the huskiness into Mrs Thatcher's voice. This, too, offended many. A book was published which revealed to general amazement that the chairmen of companies which donate large sums to the Conservative Party are often honoured by Her Majesty. In Salt- ash, a police car hurrying to the scene of a road accident knocked down and killed two old ladies. Bank lending rates went up. The seasonal campaign against drunken driving came to an end when Chief Super- intendent Bert Sheldon, head of the Dorset police traffic division, was sen- tenced to 28 days' imprisonment sus- pended for two years after crashing his car while out on a spree. A three-month-old baby, son of another policeman, survived after flying through a car window at 70 mph and bouncing 30 yards along the M4.
IN SOUTH Africa the New Year began with a black attack on segregated beaches in Durban, and continued with tribal fight- ing in black areas, the murder of two white civilians by a landmine on the border with Botswana, and a large demonstration when 20,000 people, mostly black, turned out for the funeral procession of Mrs Molly Black- burn, a white campaigner for civil rights who had died in a genuine road accident. Her memorial service was promptly ban- ned. Colonel Gaddafi, who is supposed to have armed the terrorists responsible for the Boxing Day murders at Rome and Vienna airports, struck attitudes of boast- ful defiance while the American fleet demonstrated off the Libyan Coast. Presi- dent Reagan orderd Americans to sever all economic links with Libya. Reagan and Mr Gorbachev appeared on the television ser- vices of each other's long-suffering sub- jects: their messages were that neither wanted war, but one wants SDI and the other does not. Cardinal Sin of Manilla announced that ballot-rigging and electoral fraud would be punished in Hell. When asked if this statement might not be con- strued as anti-government, he replied that it could only bear that construction. Mrs Cory Aquino, President Marcos's oppo- nent in the presidential elections, clarified her earlier clarifications of her attitude towards the Communists by saying that while they were welcome to vote for her, and to talk to her if they renounced violence, she would have none in her government. Lord David Cecil and Christ- opher Isherwood died. The government of Bangladesh cancelled a tour by English cricketers, on the grounds that some had played in South Africa. The Marquess of Blandford was jailed for three months and called a 'common criminal' after he admit- ted breaking a probation order imposed for
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